Subsea ice-bearing permafrost on the U.S. Beaufort Margin: 2. Borehole constraints: SUBSEA PERMAFROST IN U.S. BEAUFORT II

Ruppel, Carolyn D.; Herman, Bruce M.; Brothers, Laura L.; Hart, Patrick E.

doi:10.1002/2016gc006582

Subsea ice-bearing permafrost on the U.S. Beaufort Margin: 2. Borehole constraints: SUBSEA PERMAFROST IN U.S. BEAUFORT II

Journal Article · Tue Oct 11 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2016gc006582· OSTI ID:1532976

Ruppel, Carolyn D. ^[1]; Herman, Bruce M. ^[2]; Brothers, Laura L. ^[3]; Hart, Patrick E. ^[4]

U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA (United States); DOE/OSTI
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Anchorage, AK (United States)
U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA (United States)
U.S. Geological Survey, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)

Borehole logging data from legacy wells directly constrain the contemporary distribution of subsea permafrost in the sedimentary section at discrete locations on the U.S. Beaufort Margin and complement recent regional analyses of exploration seismic data to delineate the permafrost's offshore extent. Most usable borehole data were acquired on a ~500 km stretch of the margin and within 30 km of the contemporary coastline from north of Lake Teshekpuk to nearly the U.S.-Canada border. Relying primarily on deep resistivity logs that should be largely unaffected by drilling fluids and hole conditions, the analysis reveals the persistence of several hundred vertical meters of ice-bonded permafrost in nearshore wells near Prudhoe Bay and Foggy Island Bay, with less permafrost detected to the east and west. Permafrost is inferred beneath many barrier islands and in some nearshore and lagoonal (back-barrier) wells. The analysis of borehole logs confirms the offshore pattern of ice-bearing subsea permafrost distribution determined based on regional seismic analyses and reveals that ice content generally diminishes with distance from the coastline. Lacking better well distribution, it is not possible to determine the absolute seaward extent of ice-bearing permafrost, nor the distribution of permafrost beneath the present-day continental shelf at the end of the Pleistocene. However, the recovery of gas hydrate from an outer shelf well (Belcher) and previous delineation of a log signature possibly indicating gas hydrate in an inner shelf well (Hammerhead 2) imply that permafrost may once have extended across much of the shelf offshore Camden Bay.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)

Grant/Contract Number:: FE0023495

OSTI ID:: 1532976

Journal Information:: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, Journal Name: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 17; ISSN 1525-2027

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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The interaction of climate change and methane hydrates: Climate-Hydrates Interactions Ruppel, Carolyn D.; Kessler, John D. Reviews of Geophysics, Vol. 55, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016rg000534	journal	February 2017
Permafrost Extent on the Alaskan Beaufort Shelf From Surface-Towed Controlled-Source Electromagnetic Surveys Sherman, D.; Constable, S. C. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 123, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018jb015859	journal	September 2018
Submarine Permafrost Map in the Arctic Modeled Using 1‐D Transient Heat Flux (SuPerMAP) Overduin, P. P.; Schneider von Deimling, T.; Miesner, F. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, Vol. 124, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018jc014675	journal	June 2019
Retracted: Organic Carbon Pools in the Subsea Permafrost Domain Since the Last Glacial Maximum Mu, Cuicui; Zhang, Tingjun; Abbott, Benjamin W. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019gl083049	journal	July 2019
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